Ganapati – 38 Holly Grove, London SE15 5DF

Ganapti has a bit of buzz about it, it seems to be one of the growing foodie stops poping up south of the river.

We started well with the Crab Thoran – this was an outstanding dish, with the heavy use of coconut and the spices, it was pure joy. Everything was well balanced, it was like eating summer, not too sweet or spicy.

Our next dish was the Kadal prawn curry, Tiger prawns cooked in masala of ground cumin, black pepper, green chilli with cardamom + a dash of coconut milk. This was a little watery, the prawns were cooked well but the flavour just wasn’t there, the sauce didn’t penetrate the prawns flesh and was not thick enough to stick. This dish also suffered from an overuse of cardamon.

Nagore lamb korma, Pieces of lamb leg cooked in ground cashew, yoghurt, spices, mint + corriander. Maybe this is more authentic than the Indian i’m used to, i’m no expert on Indian food but this was again a little bland, the sauce wasn’t deep and rich enough and it also suffered from the over use of cardamon.

Baby Aubergine Masala – Aubergine cooked in richly spiced masala of tamarind, jaggery, chilli, tomato, coconut / thoran, raita, pickle. Another watery and bland curry, disappointing. How anything can be bland with that description astounds me but they did it.

Beetroot pachadi – Beetroot cooked in coconut, yoghurt + spices. This dish I quite liked it was nicely spiced and was not overwhelmed by cardamon.

Ganapti is quite expensive with the prawn and lamb dishes both more than 12 pounds. I’ve heard good things about this place and maybe I hit it on a bad day. Apparently their menu does change quite regularly so I might just try it agian but for now I can’t recommend it.